How To Start A Blog on Bluehost: A Step-by-Step Guide

Before I started blogging, I have zero knowledge about blogging. I wanted to start my own blog as space for me to share my knowledge, ideas but I have no idea how to start. Feels like it took me forever to start my blog back in April 2017.

I have many questions in my mind with so little answers. I wish I found a complete guide on how to start a blog for a beginner when I started my first blog.

So in this post, I will show you step by step how you can start your own blog with no technical skill required. There’s no excuse not to start now.

Why Blogging?

There are many reasons why people start blogging. You probably know a lot of famous bloggers that are making full-time income blogging. How cool is that huh?

Well if you wonder, I started blogging to share my knowledge and ideas. But being able to make full-time income isn’t a bad idea at all if I think about it.

Step 1: Choose a Blogging Platform

There are many blogging platforms to choose from, but I highly recommend you to start with WordPress.

WordPress is by far the most popular blogging platform for all the good reasons. It’s free, easy to configure, highly customizable and secure.

If you decided to get started with WordPress, you’ll have 2 options: WordPress.com or WordPress.org.

WordPress.com is a hosted solution by WordPress. WordPress will host your blog and handle everything for you. You will have access to manage your blog. It’s free to start but it has tons of limitation. You can’t install a plugin with WordPress.com and you can’t make money.

WordPress.org is a self-hosted solution. You will host your blog on your own hosting of choice. It will cost you a little money to get started but you will have full control over your blog. You can change how it looks, install plugins and make money with it. The self-hosted solution also comes with professional support from the hosting provider.

For new bloggers looking for ways to start a blog for free, you probably tempted to use WordPress.com. But in the long run, you will hit the limitation of the platform as you try to grow your blog.

I recommend you to get started with WordPress.org right from the beginning so you can focus on growing your blog and make money with it. Don’t be afraid of the cost of hosting. The cost to get a self-hosted WordPress blog is very cheap now, it’s even less than a cup of coffee.

If you really want to WordPress.org for free, you can set up your blog for free with Google Cloud. Google Cloud is giving away $300 free credits that will last you for a month. Bear in mind that it comes with no support, you need to have the technical knowledge and you’re on your own.

In this guide, I will teach you how to start a self-hosted WordPress blog with Bluehost.

Step 2: Find a Host

I recommend using Bluehost to host your blog. Why? Bluehost has been the recommended hosting at WordPress.org since 2005. Bluehost offers the ultimate WordPress platform and they make it so easy for you to set up your blog with a 1-click installation.

Note: Some of the links on this page are affiliate links, meaning if you choose to buy them, I will earn a commission at no extra cost to you. Please know that I have experience with all of the following resources and I recommend them because they are great.

Select the plan that suits you best. If you’re just starting your blog, I recommend you to go with the basic plan.

Once your blog starts to grow, you can upgrade your plan to Prime (you’ll get Domain Privacy feature for free) or Pro (you’ll get SSL Certificate that will help you with your SEO ranking and Domain Privacy feature for free).

Step 3: Register a Domain Name

A domain name is your blog address, this is how people can access your blog. For my blog, my domain name is typeeighty.com.

With Bluehost, you’ll get to register a domain name for FREE. You can choose any domain name as long as it’s available.

Now, some of you probably already have a domain registered with GoDaddy or Namecheap. You can enter your existing domain name in the right box.

If you waited long enough to enter your domain, Bluehost is smart enough to know you don’t have it ready. You will see this kind of pop-up where you can choose a free domain later so click on the green button to proceed.

Choosing a right domain name for your blog is hard and time-consuming. Following are criteria of a domain name for your blog:

Easy to type and memorable

Easy to pronounce

Short

Brandable

Using targeted keyword

Available across all social media channels

Using top level domain name (.com, .net, .org or others)

I have created a list of 10 best domain name generators that has helped me in the past in choosing domain names. Do check that out and be creative with your domain name.

Next, fill out your account info.

Choose the right account plan that you want to purchase. You choose 1, 2, or 3 years and Bluehost will bill you upfront.

I recommend you to select Domain Privacy Protection, this will keep your personal information in the WHOIS database and keep it private.

You’ll get a congratulation message and a various upsells or offers, scroll down to the bottom of the page and click “No Thanks”.

Now that you’ve completed your purchase, you’ll be asked to create a password.

Step 4: Configure Your Blog

With recent update in October 2017, Bluehost makes it even easier to install WordPress. Basically, everything is done automatically for you.

After you created your password successfully, you can log in to your Bluehost account.

Bluehost will prompt you to choose a free theme for your blog. But, let’s skip this step for now.

Now that you’re all set, start building your site.

If you have no experience with WordPress before, you’ll probably have no idea what to do next.

The first thing you want to do is to install essential WordPress plugins. Here are some of the plugins I highly recommend for you to install right away.

Google Analytics for WordPress: The best Google Analytics plugin for Wordpress. It’s so easy to add your Google Analytics account and start tracking your visitors. You can see how your visitors find and use your website.Yoast SEO: One of the must-install plugins for bloggers. Yoast SEO helps you to write a better content for your audience and optimise your content for Search Engine.WPForms: The best plugin to build your contact form. With its Drag & Drop online form builder, you could create beautiful contact forms with just a few clicks.WP Super Cache: A very fast and easy to use caching plugin for WordPress. This plugin would make your blog load faster.Pretty Link Pro: If you plan to make money from your website (which you should), you should install Pretty Link plugin. You can shorten those ugly long affiliate links using your own domain name and track the performance of the links.Social Warfare: The best social media sharing plugin that I’m currently using at TypeEighty. It’s beautiful and doesn’t slow down your blog.OptinMonster: A great lead generation software to help you grow your email list fast by converting visitors into subscribers and customers.

Step 5: Design Your Blog

Now that you already installed all the important plugins for your site or blog, it’s time to design your blog. Designing your blog involves a theme. A theme in WordPress is what shapes how your website looks and behave. In simpler terms, your WordPress theme is your website or blog design.

WordPress has a lot of free themes for you to choose from. For now, choose any free theme that you like to get started with. Don’t spend too much time in choosing a theme now. You can always change your theme later. Find out how you can install a WordPress theme easily on this post.

StudioPress themes are powered by their own Genesis framework. Genesis framework is search engine optimised, mobile optimised, secure and it’s easy to set up and use. It also has a huge community support so you can always get help when you encounter any issue.

Step 6: Start Writing Content

It’s time to start blogging. Start working on your content by creating posts and pages for your blog.

Don’t be afraid that your post will be poorly written. You’ll get better in time as you get used to writing and find your own unique writing style.

Final Thoughts

It’s so much easier to start a blog now that you don’t need to have any technical knowledge to do so. Starting a blog is a good way to share your knowledge and ideas with other people.

Now that you start a blog, you’ll need to work hard to grow your audience and content. You will have to experiment with a lot of things and find out what works and what not for your blog and your audience.